


that's what jamie oliver said!

by graceana



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, honestly there are never enough of those, x factor fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:07:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/graceana/pseuds/graceana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in parma ham with some homemade mash potatoes</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Louis is doing this. He’s not really sure how exactly he’s going to go about it but he is determined to cook Harry a fancy dinner.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	that's what jamie oliver said!

**Author's Note:**

> last night i became very offended at the lack of fics there are about this very important dinner. 15 minutes passed and then i started to write this and now here we are. 
> 
> all mistakes are my own! enjoy !! .x
> 
> (title from the [johnathan ross show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l76E3ZUTYDg) interview)

Louis is doing this. He’s not really sure how exactly he’s going to go about it, but he is going to figure it out and cook Harry a fancy dinner.

Right now they’re sitting on the couch in the X Factor house watching a rerun of Alan Carr and Harry is tucked under Louis’ arm. They’re the same size now, Harry had the tiniest of a growth spurt since they first met and Louis knows it’s only time before he grows even more.

See the thing is, Harry makes Louis’ heart go out of rhythm which then sends the butterflies in his tummy into a frenzy. He’s seen it when they watch the video diaries back, how his face goes soft and fond when he and Harry meet eyes.

Even now when Harry presses a light kiss to Louis’ shoulder just _because_ he can, his face starts to transform into this smitten, lovesick expression that he gets teased about to no end. Or well he used to, since there’s not many people left in the house there aren’t as many people to tease him about it. Plus there’s no time for teasing a boy about a very serious crush on another boy when there is a competition to win.

"Hey Lou?" Harry asks as he sits up.

"Hmm?" Louis’ hand is still in Harry’s hair, lightly pulling and twisting into his curls. He loves the way how silky they feel and how it makes Harry practically purr.

"Want a sandwich?"

See this is the other thing, Harry is always always _always_ making Louis something, whether it be breakfast, lunch, or dinner, even a cup of tea. So it’s really only right that he repays him the favor. Then again he still just really wants to make Harry something special that he’ll (hopefully) always remember.

"Sure." Louis nods.

"PB and J or Nutella and banana?" Harry asks getting up from his spot.

"Babe, I think you already know."

Harry chuckles, “Can never be too sure though, right?” He starts walking backwards towards the kitchen and almost trips over one of the play station controllers. His cheeks blush a pretty pink.

"Maybe about some things." Louis states. And he doesn’t even need anyone to tease him to know that his face is a fond, affectionate mess right now.

Harry’s cheeks turn an even deeper shade of red before he quickly makes his way out of the living room towards the kitchen.

✧

Since there’s no one in the house for Louis to ask for advice about this whole Cooking for Harry thing so he takes it to the Internet.

First of all, he has no idea what he’s going to cook let alone how he’s going to manage to cook it without either messing up or burning the entire house down.

Thankfully at the moment Harry is in vocal lessons and practicing for this week’s song for the next hour or so, so he can search up something without having to sneak away.

He’s sitting on his bunk with his laptop resting on his thighs, fingers hovering over the keys as the colorful letters of Google stare back at him.

_dinner date recipes_

He types in first. A million and two answers come up and by the titles they all seem way too complicated so he goes he clocks before ‘dinner’ and types in ‘easy.’ There are still a bunch of suggestions that still seem way to out of his league for his level of cooking experience.

He groans into his hands. He just wants to make Harry a nice dinner why does it have to be so hard?

"You all right?" Zayn asks from where he’s just walked in.

Of all the boys if he were to tell one of them about his plan it would be Zayn. He’s still going to get shit from Zayn but at least he would also try and help.

"No." Louis pouts.

"What’s wrong?" Zayn comes over and sits near Louis’ legs.

"Don’t laugh," he says sternly. Zayn is probably going to laugh no matter what.

Zayn uses his right pointer finger and makes an ‘x’ over his heart.

"I want to make Harry dinner but I can’t cook for shit and Google isn’t helping me find ‘easy’ options," he groans again.

There’s a faint smile on Zayn’s face. “Aw mate,” he coos.

"You said you wouldn’t laugh," Louis grits.

"And I’m not." Zayn points out. "I can help you though. Not so much with the cooking but my mum used to watch this Jamie Oliver guy and has one of his books." He shrugs.

"So you’ll ask her?" Louis lights up with excitement.

"Or we can just search something up now." Zayn gently takes the laptop from Louis’ lap and brings it onto his own.

They both peer at the answers that come up when they type in ‘Jamie Oliver.’ They click the first one which brings them to the guy’s website.

"Click there." Louis points to the top of the screen where it says _Recipes_.

"Zayn!" Someone calls; it sounds a lot like Niall.

"Oh God I don’t want anyone else to know about this." Louis grabs the laptop and throws it under the blankets before Niall comes crashing through the doors.

"You runnin’ away because you’re losing?" Niall accuses him. They must be playing FIFA.

"You wish." Zayn gets up and gives Louis a reassuring smile before leaving the room with Niall.

When he uncovers the laptop and looks down at the little digital clock he realises that Harry is probably going to be coming back soon.

He quickly goes through some of the recipes until he finds one that has two lines out of the five for difficulty. It’s a chicken recipe with a side of potatoes and gravy, he skims on the instructions and ingredients to ensure that it really is as easy as it says.

It sounds easy but whether it’ll actually _be_ easy Louis is going to have to find that out on his own.

✧

Louis is an absolute genius.

Today while Harry was hanging out with Matt he snuck off with Zayn to the store to get what he needs to make the recipe: chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in parma ham with a side of homemade mash potatoes and gravy. He’s been repeating the same sentence in his head for about 3 days since he decided on it.

He’s also watched the instruction video that’s on Jamie Oliver’s website about 4 times, each time Harry was in the shower,to make sure that he doesn’t mess up. It was actually quite hard to find time to look things up pertaining to his plan because of how much time he and Harry spend together in the house.

Anyways, back to why Louis is a genius.

Since he and Harry never leaves his side he figures he might as well just have Harry supervise him while he cooks and then once it’s done he’ll neatly make two plates and invite Harry over to the table to join him.

It’s practically fool proof.

✧

“Wait. Can you repeat that?” Harry teases and pulls out his phone as if to record Louis.

Louis rolls his eyes and pouts. “Stop I really want to learn.”

Harry clucks and wraps his arms around Louis’ shoulders in a not-so-bro-like hug. Nothing they do is bro-like though. Unless blow jobs are bro-like, then yeah they are totally bros.

“I’m gonna have to learn sooner or later,” he mutters. He’s lying he really never plans on learning.

“That’s what I’m for though.” Harry pulls back and looks into his eyes.

“True.” Louis sighs. “But still.” The briefer he keeps this the less suspicious Harry will become.

“All right then.” Harry slides his hand on Louis’ arm and intertwines their hands. “Let’s go teach you to cook.” He beams.

 

“I made it very clear you were to supervise and let me do it.” Louis is pointing a wooden spoon at Harry. He’s tried about 8 times to take over and Louis is not having it.

Harry puts his hands up in defense. “Okay. Okay.” He backs away from where he was by Louis’ side and makes his way to sit at the table.

“Wait no.” Louis pouts and then reaches out his other arm that isn’t holding the spoon in threat and sings, “Baby come back.”

Harry giggles and bounces back over to Louis and pecks him on the mouth.

Louis hums and puts the spoon down to draw Harry in by the hips and deepen the kiss.

Pulling back with a light laugh and small smirk on his face, Harry says, “Love, the chicken is gonna burn.”

“Shit.” Louis pulls away from Harry and turns back to the chicken. “Arse.” Louis says over his shoulder when he realises that the chicken is in the oven and still has 10 minutes left to cook.

It smells so amazing in the kitchen. Louis can’t actually believe that he’s made it smell this wonderful. It smells _edible_ he may be a little proud of himself. After all he hasn’t burned a thing or set anything on fire so that’s a win.

“Can you handle potatoes?” Harry teases him.

“You know what Styles.” Louis grabs one of the extra pieces of ham and throws it at Harry’s face. He at first tries to catch it with his mouth but the trajectory is all wrong and it lands more on his cheek and nose.

Harry’s mouth is opening and closing like a fish when he strides towards Louis and starts pinching his sides and tickling him to no end, the piece of ham forgotten when he landed with a nasty sound on the floor. There are bubbles of laughter escaping from Louis’ mouth as he tries to retaliate against him.

“The potatoes!” he shouts. “The potatoes!”

Harry finally pulls back with tears in his eyes from laughing and a wide dimpled grin plastered across his face.

“What?” Louis asks him. He can feel a light blush starting to dust his cheeks and turns towards the drained potatoes that have been sitting in the pan for the last 5 minutes.

“Nothing.” Harry says while Louis starts to mash the potatoes.

There’s a flash.

“Hey!” Louis turns, he’s really blushing now as Harry types something out on his phone.

He raises his head with a manic grin but his eyes are soft when he says, “Now the whole world knows you’ve never cooked before.”

“Thanks,” says Louis dryly.

Harry stays quite while Louis continues with the potatoes and after they’re smooth and look like mashed potatoes he coughs when he realises there is one vital thing missing.

“Erm, Harry?” He turns around to see Harry sitting on the counter, silently watching him with an affectionate look on his face. It makes his chest grow warm with joy and pure _love_ for this stupid stupid boy.

“Yeah?” Harry says in a whisper.

Louis is suddenly very very shy and insecure about this whole night and starts to shy away. “I don’t know how to make gravy,” he mutters.

Even after watching the video as many times as he has and reading over the recipe he still doesn’t understand how to make the simple sauce.

Before he knows it Harry is behind him and placing a small kiss on his neck. “That’s what I’m here for,” he says with in a ‘happy to help’ tone.

Louis can’t even form words with how his throat is closing up so he makes a garbled noncommittal sound as Harry starts to move around the kitchen and grabs ingredients from the cabinet.

As he checks on the chicken he suddenly realises that within two weeks time, whether they win this competition or not, that he and Harry won’t be with each other every day like they are now. He hasn’t even really thought about it, has been too worried about practicing for the shows this weekend and just living day by day to give it the time of day.

He pulls the chicken out and takes the temperate just like Jamie Oliver did in the video. It’s perfect, just right.

“The gravy’s done,” Harry chirps from the stove.

Louis nods, he can’t think about this right now he needs to wow Harry.

“Okay go sit down.” Louis orders. Harry gives him a question look but does what he’s told.

Louis grabs two plates from the cupboard and places a piece of his wonderfully cooked chicken on each, then a spoonful of mash potatoes and gravy on top. When he went to the store with Zayn he bought a small bottle of cheap wine just to set mood, so he grabs that from the fridge and puts it between in his elbow and carries the plates over.

He sets one in front of Harry and then across from him with a smug smile. He sets the wine in the middle and then hurries back to grab glasses and the silverware.

When Louis looks up after he’s finished pouring them each a little bit of the wine, he sees Harry giving him the dopiest, most lovedrunk smile Louis has ever seen directed at him.

“What?” He blushes under the attention.

“You made me dinner?” he crows.

“Well, I mean. If that’s how you want to look at it.” Louis deflects. Harry kicks him under the table.

“Okay. Yes, I made you dinner.” He tucks his lips into themselves and turns his head away trying to stop his smile.

Harry hooks his ankles around Louis’ own before he starts to cut at his chicken. Louis watches him with his full attention to make sure he likes it. He needs to make sure his baby is satisfied before he tries it himself.

“Mmm,” Harry hums around his fork.

When he swallows he smiles at Louis. “It tastes great Lou.”

“Thanks.” Louis says into his mash potatoes.

They eat with their usual banter and shy glances when the other isn’t looking but Louis can’t help the thoughts that are rushing through his head each time Harry wiggles his toes against his calves.

They mostly consist of:

_We won’t be able to do this in two weeks._

_I want to live with you._

_I never cooked for anyone but I want to cook for you._

_Please never leave me._

He must zone out because the next thing he knows Harry is waving his fork in front of his face trying to get his attention. “Lou? Hey, you all right?” he asks, concern written in the crease of his brow.

“Yeah, just.” He sighs, he doesn’t want to make the mood sad and dreary but the final is in _two weeks_. And that’s only if they make it through this weekend. “I’m scared,” he mumbles while moving around the last bits of chicken on his plate.

“Of not winning?” Harry asks.

“That and.” Louis looks up from his plate and stares at Harry with what he knows are hearts in his eyes. He really can’t picture himself with this boy not by his side. Whether it is in any way he just _can’t_ picture them _not_ together. “I’m gonna miss you Haz,” he says sadly.

“Lou,” Harry barely whispers.

Then a minute later Harry is pulling him up from his chair and into his arms. He barriers his head into the spot where Harry’s shoulder meets his neck and just breathes. He’s going to miss this. He’s going to miss their nightly cuddles. God he hasn’t slept alone in _weeks_ how is he going to get used to that again?

He’s going to miss the way he would wake up and Harry would already be waiting for him downstairs with tea or with him blinking back at him lazily until Louis kissed him, and then they would eventually fall out of bed in laughter because each of the other boys would throw something at them to get them to stop.

His chest tightens, like someone is pulling a rope around his chest and squeezing.

He sniffles. He is not crying he just can’t stand the little voice in his head that is supplying him with all these _simple_ things he’s going to miss about the once shy boy holding him.

“We’re not that far from each other,” Harry says and pulls away so he can look into Louis’ eyes. “I’ll make my mum drive me to see you every weekend if I have to.”

Louis smiles a slightly watery smile at him and leans in for a sweet kiss that’s so familiar and them  that is hurts. It’s familiar in the way that Harry tries to lead but Louis soon takes over and kisses into Harry’s mouth until he’s breathlessly with it.

“And if this whole thing doesn’t work out.” Harry motions with his hands around them. “And we don’t become world famous popstars we’ll all move in together and it’ll be like nothing’s changed.”

A sudden laughs erupts from Louis’ chest, right behind his heart. “I think we’ll be okay in the end,” he whispers to Harry. “Even if we don’t win, I think _we’ll_ still win.”

“Oh God.” Harry rolls his eyes. “I thought bad jokes were my thing?”

“Hey!” Louis scolds and lightly hits Harry across the chest. “I’m being serious.”

“I know, I know.” Harry presses a light kiss to his lips. “I know what you mean.”

“Promise me one thing though.” Louis says. The sadness that was winding its way through his veins and wrapping around his bones is gone and is replaced with the memories of warm mornings and cold nights cuddled together.

Harry raises his eyebrow in question.

“Don’t tell anyone how I made you dinner.” He’s hoping Harry gets the reverse psychology he’s trying to use that he saw on the show they were watching the other night because he actually wants Harry to tell _everyone_ that Louis made him dinner.

Harry chuckles. “For some reason I think it’s going to be _you_ that won’t be able to keep the promise.”

Louis cackles and throws his head back before leaning in and smacking a playful kiss on Harry’s lips. He presses his forehead against Harry’s and looks at him until he’s eyes start to cross and Harry’s nothing but a blurry blob.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see then huh?”

The dimples by Harry’s mouth pop when he smiles. “I guess so.”

(As they year pass Louis is asked countless times about the most romantic thing he’s every done and each time he’ll smile as he retells the memory. Sure, there are a few details that are left out but Louis knows the real story and so does Harry for that matter.

So yeah, turns out he really is the one who can’t shut up about it.)

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos always appreciated! .x
> 
> and wow i'm actually really pleased with the ending this time.


End file.
